Monthly Archives: July 2010

Michael Gove was right to apologise yesterday. When he made his statement to the Commons about Building Schools for the Future he should have shared with us the list of projects affected. Where his Labour predecessors might well have tried to “bury bad news” without volunteering a statement, he correctly appeared, but unfortunately did not [...]

Ministers would be wise to tone down the rhetoric of massive cuts. They need to mobilise, energise and reform the public services. Labour made clear in their marathon moan in the Commons yesterday into the early hours of this morning that they are out to talk the economy down, highlight alleged huge cuts in jobs [...]

On the Today programme this morning we debated the impact of public spending changes on the construction industry. I argued that according to the Office of Budget Responsibility – and most private sector forecasts – overall investment in the economy is forecast to increase every year to 2015 from next year. Business investment will rise [...]

I promised David Willetts I would review his book “The Pinch” . The sub title tells the story – “How the baby boomers took their childrens future – and why they should give it back”. My first reaction was that he is wrong. His case that the baby boomers have amassed so much wealth in [...]

Labour is out campaigning against 1.3 million alleged public sector job losses and compulsory redundancies. The government needs to put the record straight promptly before this camapign gets out of hand. The official figure for job reductions in the puboic sector over the next five years is 600,000 according to the Office of Budget responsibility. [...]

I hear Danny Alexander has asked each department to tell him how they might cut 40% from their budgets – save the ring fenced departments. I suppose it’s a useful starter to the conversation he needs to have with each to settle their figure for next year. I am not sure it is so useful [...]

The politics of bashing banks is good. They are widely blamed for the last collapse. The people who regulated them, and the Central Banks who set interest rates and rushed from boom to bust with the money supply have escaped much of the blame. Many of the commercial banks’ Directors and senior executives earned too [...]

When Ken Clarke was Chancellor he was lucky. He took over after all the difficult decisions had been put in place by Norman Lamont to get the then deficit under control. Reducing the deficit was a necessary but not sufficient condition for recovery. He took over when world trade and the world economy were going [...]

The outgoing PM in Australia serves as a warning to incumbents. If you combine unpopular climate change legislation with a big tax increase, you lose your job. The legislation was defeated, and the tax increase on mining has now been abated.